2011-03-17

76.5% believe that government should stop construction on Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to conduct further security assessments

Japan’s recent earthquake has brought awareness and concern to the Taiwanese people over the safety of nuclear power plants in Taiwan. The DPP conducted a survey from March 15 to 16, where 50.6% of the respondents said they did not have confidence in the management capacity of nuclear power plants. 61.1% of the respondents said that they didn’t have confidence on the government’s ability to handle a nuclear crisis. Most importantly, 76.5% of the respondents said they believed in stopping construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and that further government assessment was needed.

Director of the DPP’s Survey Opinion Center, Chen Chung-lin, said at the March 17th press conference that more than half of the respondents didn’t have confidence in the management capacity of nuclear power plants in Taiwan, while only 37.2% said to have confidence. He said that during the survey, when asked “In regards to their confidence in the government’s capability to handle a nuclear crisis”, 61.1% of the respondents said to not have confidence while only 30.5% said that they did have confidence. Director Chen said that the survey results are to give President Ma a high degree of alert.

Additionally, in regards to the question whether they agree or absolutely agree to stopping construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and that further government assessment was needed, 76.5% of the respondents said they agreed while 58.2% responded to ‘absolutely agree’.

“If more than half of the respondents in a survey say that they absolutely agree, this is an important point for the Ma Administration to pay concern to,” Director Chen said.

Director Chen also added that among the pan-green supporters, 83.4% agreed to stop construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to conduct further assessments, and among pan-blue supporters, 75.4% said to also believe the same. He said this represents that both party supporters agreed to stop construction in order to conduct further assessments.

This survey was conducted from March 15 to 16 through telephone calling of random numbers with citizens 20 years and older. The sampling number was 1,112 and under a standard of 95% confidence level with approximately 2.99% sampling error.